"And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support."

—Richard M. Nixon, November 3, 1969

"Silent Majority" is a term used by the U.S. President Richard Nixon in a 1969 speech. It refers to a hypothetical large number of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. When President Nixon used it for the first time, it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not engage in riots and purportedly attack police officers, who did not join in the counterculture, who didn't support desegragation or civil rights for African-Americans, and who did not enthusiastically participate in public discourse or the media. Nixon along with many others saw this group as being overshadowed by the more vocal minority.

This majority referred mainly to the older generation (those World War II veterans in all parts of the United States) but it also described many young people in the Midwest, West and in the South, many of whom did eventually serve in Vietnam. The Silent Majority was mostly populated with the blue collar people who made up the backbone of America, but who didn't have the ability or the time to take an active part in politics other than to vote. They did, in some cases, support the conservative policies of many politicans. Others were not particularly conservative politically, but resented what they saw as disrespect for American institutions.

The idiom was first recorded in 1874.

See also

• Draft
• Majority rule
• Majoritarianism
• Red Friday
• Wipe-out results (elections)

Political slogans | Richard Nixon

サイレント・マジョリティ | Majorité silencieuse